Jar Gifts for Teachers

The kids and I worked on gifts for their teachers earlier this week. Having been a public school teacher I always appreciated the gifts my students gave me. I got many #1 teacher ornaments and other teacher gifts. However, I like to make gifts for my childrens’ teachers that aren’t the traditional “teacher” items.

This year I decided to make jar gifts for all of the teachers. I hate to part with my good canning jars when there is the possibility they could get thrown away. So, we used jars that once held coconut oil, nut butters and honey. The jars already had one piece gold lids, so we didn’t cover them with fabric.

You could always use canning jars. Sometimes you can find good deals at yard sales or thrift shops on glass jars. Even a plastic peanut butter jar could work, but I prefer to use glass.

Julia helped me make homemade bath salts for her teacher and Joshua’s teachers. We made four different colors and layered them in the jars. It took four batches to make the four colors of salts to fill the jars.

Here is our recipe:

1 cup Epsom Salt, 1/4 cup Baking Soda, 1 tsp. Apricot Kernel Oil, 10 drops Lavender Essential Oil, 2-4 drops Food Coloring.

Combine the oils and food coloring. Add the salt and baking soda. Mix well.

Alternative essential oils could be used as well as other oils such as grapeseed, sweet almond, or extra virgin olive oil.

I created the labels for the jars and have made them available for download here. If you have Microsoft Word you can edit the document to change the oils on the ingredients list if necessary.

I printed the labels on a parchment type paper and used a glue stick to attach them. I made up the little saying on top of the jars specifically for teachers, but if you were making this gift for someone else you could change it or not use it at all.

I attached a baby spoon with a rubber band and then tied a bow around each jar to complete the gifts.

James helped me make this cookie mix jar gift for his teacher. She has young children, so we thought this gift would be something they could use together over Christmas break. We layered all of the ingredients into a quart jar and then I tied a ribbon around it. A wooden spoon tucked into the ribbon completed the gift.

I made a label for the side of the jar with the contents, and I made one for the top which tells the instructions for making cookies with the mix. If you would like to print the labels and have the recipe for filling the jar you may download and print them by clicking here.

My daughter also has a male teacher who we decided would probably enjoy some treats instead of bath salts or a cookie mix. 🙂 So, we filled a decorative jar with homemade pretzel brittle and tied a bow around it. You can often find jars like this at yard sales or thrift stores inexpensively.

While we made these gifts for teachers, I think they would be great for anyone on your gift list. They were all frugal to make and won’t produce clutter for the recipients. Plus, my children got to be involved in the process.

If these teacher gifts don’t float your boat, I do have some other alternatives that I have posted about in the past.

Last Christmas I made some rice heat therapy bags for my childrens’ teachers and created a poem to go with them.

At the end of school last year we gave the teachers water bottles (free printable included) and personalized hand sanitizer.